Figure 2. Balance between Acquisition/Consolidation Forces and Forgetting.

Graph using Ebbinhaus’s famous forgetting curve to display the balance between the strengthening forces of acquisition and consolidation and the weakening forces of forgetting in forming a memory engram. Acquisition leads to molecular and cellular memory traces in engram cells that encode memory (Figure 1). These are stabilized, and evolve, by the process of consolidation, leading to a rather stable memory shown in this case to occur at 2 days after acquisition. Active forgetting provides a balance to these biological processes by eroding memory traces. Traditional studies in the neuroscience of learning and memory have emphasized processes underlying acquisition and consolidation. More recently, biological insights into the mechanisms for active forgetting have been made.